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5 Strangest Materials
Posted by
ScuttleMonkey
on Wed Jan 03, 2007 05:52 PM
from the you-too-can-be-a-jesus-lizard dept.
from the you-too-can-be-a-jesus-lizard dept.
MattSparkes writes to tell us that NewScientist recently posted a quick look at five interesting materials with some very strange properties. There are liquids you can walk on, liquids that will escape containers by creeping up the sides, and magnetic liquids that can easily show you the shape of magnetic fields. The story also offers video links to display some of more amazing properties described.
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I have one for you (Score:5, Funny)
One tiny loaf can turn an entire nation into disgusting bloated sacks of lazy crap.
Truly a mystery of the ages.
Re:I have one for you (Score:5, Funny)
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I would like to nominate whatever the hell Wonder Bread is made from.
I believe that would be high fructose corn syrup. Yes. Mostly high fructose corn syrup.
Re:I have one for you (Score:5, Informative)
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Re:I have one for you (Score:4, Funny)
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Re:I have one for you (Score:5, Insightful)
I have mod points, but I'm commenting instead because you kind of hit a pet peeve of mine. I used to feel the same way about low calorie foods. The lower the calories were per serving, the better it was for me, even if it tasted like someone had put dog turds in it.
Only I was never satisfied after that, because everything was so bloody tasteless. I want food with flavor and texture and interest, damnit. So I ate more because I was craving something that resembled real food. I gained a lot of weight following that advice. Then I switched to cooking more from scratch (which I enjoy anyway), to paying more attention to the flavor of the food than the caloric content, and to enjoying what I ate. And to not eat crap food when I wasn't hungry simply because it was time to eat. Didn't lose the weight I gained (partially, I'll admit, because a hobby of baking desserts, especially when bored or stressed, just never helps on any diet), but didn't gain any more. And I was a hell of a lot happier with myself than when I was eating cardboard for breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
I'm not saying you should always only eat high calorie foods, just don't eat low-calorie food if you think it tastes like crap. Life's too long to waste on bad food every day.
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empty calories (Score:3, Interesting)
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Finally an answer! (Score:5, Funny)
Now I know its just because my atoms all have the same quantum state.
Hammer, Feather, Freefall on the Moon: Revisited (Score:2, Interesting)
Hammer and feather are dropped simultaneously from equal heights (as measured by distance from the center of the moon), separated laterally by a distance substantially less than the moon's diameter. Both hammer and feather experience force from the moon's gravity proportional to their mass, and hence both accelerate at the same rate. Meanwhile, the moon is also accelerating towards the other two objects, but unevenly so: the ham
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So straight up - does the hammer really hit the ground first? Replacing the hammer and feather with larger bodies - say, one (as the hammer's stand-in) which is the same mass as the moon, and the other (the feather's double) which is 1/10th the mass of the moon, it seems obvious that the more massive body will impact first, as it does have a significantly larger bearing on the moon.
Does the hammer's insignificant
Re:Hammer, Feather, Freefall on the Moon: Revisite (Score:5, Funny)
This is Slashdot. He was probably being completely serious.
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http://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a15/a15.clsout3.html [nasa.gov]
So what you're saying is while there's a theoretical difference between the impact timings, the practical effect likely couldn't be measured. Makes sense.
Magnetic Fluid (Score:5, Informative)
When I read about the fluid that can flow up the sides of a container, all I could think about was THE BLOB!
Re:Magnetic Fluid (Score:5, Funny)
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Dry ice is sublime
Superfluid temperatures (Score:5, Insightful)
Now I'm no physicist, but I'm pretty sure a couple of degrees below absolute zero isn't possible, and on any other scale I can think of, it's a bit warm for superfluids. I guess he meant "above zero", although a unit would still have been useful. Funnily enough, I was just bitching [slashdot.org] about scientific faux pas in the mainstream media, but New Scientist?
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"First one, then the other."
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Food for thought.
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Dude, have you seen New Scientist lately? Their cover story a few months ago was a levitation device for flying cars. Which would have been great, if the basic operating principle weren't one that could have been debunked by a sharp high school student. Lo, behold the mighty EmDrive [wikipedia.org].
New Scientist's response [newscientist.com] is just embarrasing. From editor Jeremy Webb (emphasis added):
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Does it include the ever mysterious ethyl alcohol (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Does it include the ever mysterious ethyl alcoh (Score:5, Funny)
"...Yesterday, government scientists suggested that men should take a look at their beer consumption, considering the results of a recent analysis that revealed the presence of female hormones in beer. The theory is that drinking beer makes men turn into women. To test the finding, 100 men were fed 6 pints of beer each. It was then observed that 100% of the men gained weight, talked excessively without making sense, became overly emotional, couldn't drive, failed to think rationally, argued over nothing, and refused to apologize when wrong. No further testing is planned..."
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So Did Jesus walk on water using cornstarch? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:So Did Jesus walk on water using cornstarch? (Score:5, Funny)
That's why it's a miracle.
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"There are liquids you can walk on..." (Score:5, Funny)
<sorry - had to do it.>
Slashdotted (Score:5, Informative)
Coral cache link [nyud.net]
Dry Ice (Score:2)
Forget going online. Chances are you can pick it up at your local grocery store. It's been a mainstay at Halloween parties for years: Punch bowl + block of dry ice = foggy punch.
Yes but can they change shape into Robert Patrick (Score:3, Funny)
My keyboard (Score:2)
They forgot Aerogel (Score:5, Informative)
Superfluid Helium video (Score:3, Interesting)
Number 6 - Elastic fluids (Score:5, Interesting)
What makes this happen is the high molecular weight polyer. The molecules become entangled, and when poured, they pull each other along, resulting in the emptying of the container.
These fluids also exhibit other interesting behaviours, such as the Weissenberg effect, where when rotating rod is placed in the fluid, the fluid climbs up the rod. Also, add some particles (or bubbles), start stirring, then suddently remove the stirring rod, you will see the fluid snap back when it comes to rest.
One More I would inlcude: Plutonium (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:One More I would inlcude: Plutonium (Score:5, Informative)
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Try this at home - if... (Score:5, Interesting)
And they mention conrflour - I'd stick with cornstarch. One time going France and Hungary to teach science, I figured I'd forego the big containers of white powder on the international flights... and getting to Nice, I found that you can only buy boxes of cornflour, not boxes of cornstarch in French grocery stores. You could get sugar-packet sized envelopes of it, which were labeled in French with something I could not read but I imagine said "You are in France. We are famous of our sauces. If you need cornstarch to make a sauce, then go away!."
Ummm... (Score:5, Funny)
Hey! Who moved the submit button? And what are all these ponies doing here?
1. Dilatants (Score:3, Interesting)
fluids that get more solid when stressed. The classic example is a mixture of cornflour and water - it's runny until you hit it when it becomes solid.
I remember playing with this mixture in grade school and since then I have always wondered why materials like this could not be used to make protective/bullet proof armor. Could someone explain this to me?
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1. Dilatants - fluids that get more solid when stressed.
That pretty much covers silly putty, doesn't it?
Re:What? no mention of silly putty!? (Score:5, Informative)
I've always known dilatants as Newtonian Solids (for instance, cornstarch mixed with water, which you can sink your hand into, but which can also withstand the force of a sledgehammer [as can your hand if it's submersed at the time]).
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Re:Water comes to mind (Score:4, Interesting)
It also has one of the highest specific heats of any material. (Highest of any common material.)
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Yeah, and it self-dissociates in its liquid state - hence pH, easy ionization required for cell behavior, etc. As I stated in an earlier post, it's weird stuff, common and "familiar" or not.
Re:Aerogel (Score:4, Interesting)
It's not quite that magical. A two inch layer of aerogel will keep things about as insulated as a really good vacuum thermos, however.
I know, I work with the stuff on a regular basis, we use it as insulation, by the 400 liter barrel. See some of my pics of some of the solid slabs I have in the office [flickr.com].
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Water not on list? (Score:3, Insightful)
I wonder which are safe to drink?
Which makes you wonder why water isn't on the list. It may be ubiquitous, but it's weird. Think about it - how many other materials become less dense (ie. expand) when they freeze? I think there are about two or three known. How many others dissociate on their own in their liquid state? How many others have as big a specific heat? Think about the myriad things which are a result of those properties, some of which are a pain in the ass (cracked engine blocks if no antifre
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